Many subjects suffering from a number of medical conditions including inter alia peripheral arterial and venous disease, hypertension, diabetes and deep vein thrombosis are treated by way of medical devices with one or more inflatable bladders for applying a cyclic therapeutic action to a subject's lower limbs, and in particular to his feet, for urging venous blood flow from his feet and legs to his heart.
Venous blood flow can be urged by stimulation of one or both of two physiological mechanisms, namely, his calf's venous muscular pump and emptying of his foot's venous plexus. Medical devices for stimulating one or both of these mechanisms are illustrated and described inter alia in U.S. Pat. No. 2,531,074, U.S. Pat. No. 3,454,010, U.S. Pat. No. 3,683,897, U.S. Pat. No. 3,789,836, U.S. Pat. No. 4,003,374, U.S. Pat. No. 4,696,289, U.S. Pat. No. 4,945,905, U.S. Pat. No. 4,989,589, U.S. Pat. No. 5,117,812, U.S. Pat. No. 5,354,260, U.S. Pat. No. 5,396,896, U.S. Pat. No. 5,443,440, WO 88/09653, DE 30 09 408, and SU 0 1452-523.